comment ini file section

[MilesAhead]

I'm wondering if anyone has a tried and true method of preceding .ini file sections with comments? I've tried just generally sticking comments at the beginning by deleting the file, creating the file, writing comment lines, then closing the file. Then using the standard .ini file functions to put values in sections etc..

But I ran into side effects where even if I flush the file and close the file and delay before adding values using the .ini file functions, the file gets corrupted.

Seems like it would be a useful addition to have something like

IniWriteSectionComment(Filename,Section,string or array of comments)

that would be put in the file just before the named section.

Instead of a readme refering to the .ini file settings it could be documented in place.

Most of my small programs have only one section so in other languages it has worked to stick the comments in, close the file etc..

But I think the comment section function would be cool.

For now a work-around would be great too though.

[GEOSoft]

Although you can use comments in an ini file they are not a part of the ini file type specification and therefore not allowed using the standard ini* calls.

[BrewManNH]

Although you can use comments in an ini file they are not a part of the ini file type specification and therefore not allowed using the standard ini* calls.

Technically, comments are a part of the ini file specification, they're preceeded by the semicolon. There's just no support for them in the standard INI* functions in AutoIt, although it shouldn't be too hard to create a function that does it.

[GEOSoft]

Well imagine that, correct you are and AutoIt can write an inline comment.

IniWrite("test.ini", "General", "Test", "Some Value ;some comment")

This will also work for comments on a separate line but I can see it becoming a nightmare if there are any additions to the file at some point.

$sComment = @CRLF & @CRLF & ";Some comment goes here"
IniWrite("test.ini", "General", "Test2", "Some Other Value" & $sComment)

It could also be done if you don't specify the key but that requires a small fix after the file is written

$sLine = "=;Some comment goes here"
$sLine = StringRegExpReplace($sLine, "(?m:^)=", "")

EDIT:

I should have mentioned that if you are using the inline method the semi-colon must follow a whitespace.

Edited July 22, 2011 by GEOSoft

[MilesAhead]

Thanks for the replies. But what I really want to be able to get is this kind of result:

; valid modifier keys include

; ^ for Control

; ! for Alt

; # for WinKey

;

; LButton left mouse button

; MButton middle mouse button

; RButton right mouse button

;

; Example: !^MButton would be

; Alt and Control while pressing

; Middle Mouse Button

;

[settings]

MouseHotkey=^MButton

KeyboardHotkey=!F8

PasteFilename=0

UseGlass=1

DesktopDir=C:\Utils

; Other comment

; Yet another comment

[NewSection]

yadda=yadda

Having the comments all mixed up with the settings just seems confusing. Better for documentation if I could put several lines just above a section.

Edited July 22, 2011 by MilesAhead

[GEOSoft]

You can do that with a StringReplace() or StringRegExpReplace() after the file has been written but I don't see another way around it. Someone else may come up with an alternative yet.

[GEOSoft]

Actually I just though of another possibility as long as you know all the section names in advance.

Create a template with everything there including the section names then just use the standard functions to add the values

;some comment goes here

;and line 2 here

;just like above

[section1]

;

;

;section 2 comments start here

;more

;and some more

[section2]

Edited July 22, 2011 by GEOSoft

[MilesAhead]

Actually I just though of another possibility as long as you know all the section names in advance.

Create a template with everything there including the section names then just use the standard functions to add the values

Yeah, seems like it would be easier to just write the file using the normal write line functions. It just seems weird that there would be a delay flushing the file. That's the only reason I can think of why the hybrid approach was not dependable. It's only AutoIt3 that I got the corruption. I wonder if there's some issue with file flush in one of the libraries. Especially since I called flush on the file handle before closing, then closed it, then waited, you'd think then running the ini file functions wouldn't be a problem.

edit: now that I think of it, on the settings write side, I already know what's what so it's no big deal to write out the file. Just forces me to load an array in the proper sequence to get what I want into the file. It would just be easier for working code that already writes out a bunch of settings not to make changes.

Edited July 23, 2011 by MilesAhead

[BrewManNH]

I knocked up a function that should do what you're looking for as far as commenting a section in an ini file. See the code below, it includes error checking as well as the ability to add the comments before or after the section name. Note that when adding a comment to the ini file, if you are adding it before the section name, it will start at the line just before the section name then inserts the comments, then adds the section name and the rest of the ini file's contents. If adding a comment to a section after the section name, it will start at the next line after the name, insert the comments, and then the rest of the ini file's contents. The only reason this is mentioned is because you may want to split the comments into easily handled chunks and if you're not aware of how the comments are added, you may end up with the comments in the wrong order.

Also, this function does include the ability to add multi-line comments by separating the lines with the pipe ("|") character in the comment string.

I included a very short example script to demonstrate how it works, it will create a file called Test.ini in the scriptdir folder, populate it, then write the comments into it.

expandcollapse popup

#include-once
#include <File.au3>
#include <array.au3>
;Test function to write comments to an ini file
Global $IniFile = @ScriptDir & "\Test.ini"
FileOpen($IniFile, 2)
IniWrite($IniFile, "Test1", 1, 1)
IniWrite($IniFile, "Test1", 2, 2)
IniWrite($IniFile, "Test1", 3, 3)
IniWrite($IniFile, "Test1", 4, 4)
IniWrite($IniFile, "Test2", 1, 1)
IniWrite($IniFile, "Test2", 2, 2)
IniWrite($IniFile, "Test2", 3, 3)
IniWrite($IniFile, "Test3", 1, 1)
IniWrite($IniFile, "Test3", 2, 2)
IniWrite($IniFile, "Test3", 3, 3)
Global $Test = _IniWriteSectionComment($IniFile, "Test1", "This is a comment that comes before a section name", 1)
$Test = _IniWriteSectionComment($IniFile, "Test2", "This is a comment that comes after a section name", 0)
$Test = _IniWriteSectionComment($IniFile, "Test3", "This is a multi-line comment|that comes after a section name", 0)
$Test = _IniWriteSectionComment($IniFile, "Test4", "This will cause an error by referencing a non-existent section name", 0)
ConsoleWrite('@@ Debug(' & @ScriptLineNumber & ') : $Test = ' & $Test & @CRLF & '>Error code: ' & @error & @CRLF) ;### Debug Console
; #FUNCTION# ====================================================================================================================
; Name...........: _IniWriteSectionComment
; Description ...: Writes comment(s) to an .ini file
; Syntax.........: _IniWriteSectionComment($IWSC_FileName, $IWSC_SectionName, $IWSC_Comment[, $IWSC_ForeAft = 1])
; Parameters ....: $IWSC_FileName       - String path of the file to write to.
;                  $IWSC_SectionName    - The section of the ini file to comment.
;                  $IWSC_Comment        - String that contains the comment for the section name.
;                  $IWSC_ForeAft        - Optional: Specifies where to put the comment in relation to the section name
;                                         default is before the section name.
; Return values .: Success - Returns a 1
;                  Failure - Returns a 0
;                  @Error  - 0 = No error.
;                  |1 = file not found
;                  |2 = Could not read/split file
;                  |3 = Not an .ini file
;                  |4 = Section Name not found
; Author ........: Bob Marotte (BrewManNH)
; Modified.......:
; Remarks .......: $IWSC_ForeAft specifies whether to put the comments before or after the section name, 1 = before/0 = after
;                  To write multiline comments, separate the lines with the "|" (pipe) character, see example below.
; Related .......:
; Link ..........:
; Example .......: $Test = _IniWriteSectionComment($IniFile, "Settings", "Now is the time for all good|men to come to the aid of their country", 1)
; ===============================================================================================================================
Func _IniWriteSectionComment($IWSC_FileName, $IWSC_SectionName, $IWSC_Comment, $IWSC_ForeAft = 1)
    Local $aFileRead
    If FileExists($IWSC_FileName) Then
        Local $IWSC_fHnd = FileOpen($IWSC_FileName, 0)
        If $IWSC_fHnd = -1 Then
            Return SetError(2, 0, 0)
        EndIf
        Local $Return = _FileReadToArray($IniFile, $aFileRead)
        If $Return = 0 Then
            Return SetError(2, 0, 0)
        EndIf
        Local $aSectionNames = IniReadSectionNames($IniFile)
        If @error Then
            Return SetError(3, 0, 0)
        EndIf
        If _ArraySearch($aSectionNames, $IWSC_SectionName) < 0 Then
            Return SetError(4, 0, 0)
        EndIf
        Local $aTempArray = StringSplit($IWSC_Comment, "|")
        Local $IWSC_Index = _ArraySearch($aFileRead, "[" & $IWSC_SectionName & "]")
        Local $aHolder[UBound($aFileRead) + UBound($aTempArray) - 1]
        If $IWSC_ForeAft Then
            For $I = 0 To $IWSC_Index - 1
                $aHolder[$I] = $aFileRead[$I]
            Next
            For $I = $IWSC_Index To $aTempArray[0] + $IWSC_Index - 1
                $aHolder[$I] = "; " & $aTempArray[$I - ($IWSC_Index - 1)]
            Next
            For $I = $IWSC_Index To $aFileRead[0]
                $aHolder[$I + $aTempArray[0]] = $aFileRead[$I]
            Next
        Else
            For $I = 0 To $IWSC_Index
                $aHolder[$I] = $aFileRead[$I]
            Next
            For $I = $IWSC_Index + 1 To $aTempArray[0] + $IWSC_Index
                $aHolder[$I] = "; " & $aTempArray[$I - ($IWSC_Index)]
            Next
            For $I = $IWSC_Index + 1 To $aFileRead[0]
                $aHolder[$I + $aTempArray[0]] = $aFileRead[$I]
            Next
        EndIf
        _ArrayDelete($aHolder, 0)
        _FileWriteFromArray($IniFile, $aHolder)
    Else
        Return SetError(1, 0, 0)
    EndIf
    Return SetError(0, 0, 1)
EndFunc   ;==>_IniWriteSectionComment

[BrewManNH]

I just remembered an earlier post () that investigated the whole "comments in an ini file thing". If you run the script in post #5 on that thread with the test ini file that FichteFoll provided, you'll see what is and isn't considered a valid comment as far as AutoIt is concerned. In AutoIt, in-line comments (Key1=Value1 ; comment goes here) are not valid and the value for Key1 will include the whole line including the comment. Quotes around any part of the key/value/Key&value won't affect it either, it sees the quotes as part of the key name and/or the value.

Just thought that this earlier post would help clear some things up, it did for me because I forgot half of it until rereading it.

[MilesAhead]

Thanks very much for the script. I will check out the other thread also.